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digiKam 0.10.0-beta7 release for KDE4

Submitted by digiKam on Fri, 2008-12-19 12:59

Dear all digiKam fans and users!

After a huge bug triage where more than 120 bug reports have been closed since 0.10.0-beta6 release, digiKam development team is happy to release the 7th beta dedicated to KDE4 desktop. The digiKam tarball can be downloaded from SourceForge.

Following release plan, another beta release will be done next year. We need volunteers to test again and again this version to be able to provide the best release for KDE 4.2. Please time some minutes during your Chrismast holidays to test digiKam and report. Thanks in advance...

digiKam is also compilable under Windows using MinGW and Microsoft Visual C++. Precompiled packages are available with KDE-Windows installer. See KDE-Windows project for details.

To compile digiKam for KDE4, you need libkexiv2, libkdcraw, and libkipi for KDE4. These libraries are now included in KDE core but for the moment, digiKam require libkdcraw and libkexiv2 from svn trunk to compile fine (These versions of libraries will be released with KDE 4.2). To extract libraries source code from svn, look at bottom of this page for details

For others depencies, consult the README file. There are also optional depencies to enable some new features as lensfun for lens auto-correction, and marble for geolocation.

The digikam.org web site has been redesigned for the new KDE4 series. All screenshots have been updated and a lots of video demos have been added to present new features included in this version.

NEW FEATURES (since 0.9.x series):

General : Ported to CMake/Qt4/KDE4.General : Thumbs KIO-Slave removed. digiKam now use multi-threading to generate thumnails.General : Removed all X11 library dependencies. Code is now portable under MACOS-X and Win32.General : Support of XMP metadata (require Exiv2 library >= 0.16).General : Hardware handling using KDE4 Solid interface.General : Preview of Video and Audio files using KDE4 Phonon interface.General : Database file can be stored on a customized place to support remote album library path.General : New database schema to host more photo and collection informations.General : Database interface fully re-written using Qt4 SQL plugin.General : Support of multiple roots album paths.General : Physical root albums are managed as real album.General : New option in Help menu to list all RAW file formats supported.General : Geolocation of pictures from sidebars is now delegate to KDE4 Marble widget.General : New option in Help menu to list all main components/libraries used by digiKam.General : libkdcraw dependency updated to 0.4.0.General : libkexiv2 dependency updated to 0.5.0.General : Raw metadata can be edited, changed, added to TIFF/EP like RAW file formats (require Exiv2 >= 0.18). Currently DNG, NEF, and PEF raw files are supported. More will be added in the future.General : digiKam can be compiled natively under Microsoft Windows.General : libkdcraw dependency updated to 0.4.0.General : libgphoto2 dependency is now optional to be able to compile digiKam under operating systems not supported by GPhoto2.General : Usability improvements to be able to run digiKam on small screen (like EeePC).General : New option to enable RAW metadata writing.General : digiKamlinktree script updated to support new Database schema.

AlbumGUI : Added Thumbbar with Preview mode to easy navigate between pictures.AlbumGUI : Integration of Simple Text Search tool to left sidebar as Amarok.AlbumGUI : New advanced Search tools. Re-design of Search backend, based on XML. Re-design of search dialog for a better usability. Searches based on metadata and image properties are now possible.AlbumGUI : New fuzzy Search tools based on sketch drawing template. Fuzzy searches backend use an Haar wevelet interface. You simply draw a rough sketch of what you want to find and digiKam displays for you a thumbnail view of the best matches.AlbumGUI : New Search tools based on marble widget to find pictures over a map.AlbumGUI : New Search tools to find similar images against a reference image.AlbumGUI : New Search tools to find duplicates images around whole collections.

digiKam's looking better than ever from the screenshots. You said that some of the dependencies will be included with KDE 4.2. Do you know if they're already included with 4.2 beta 2? I so want to help test DigiKam out, but previous attempts at compiling all failed. :(

Anyway, awesome work as usual. Feel free to make all the "bugs fixes" you wish. I for one will not complain. (Mon Francais c'est tres, tres terrible!) :)

I'm running Kubuntu Intrepid with KDE 4.2 beta 2, and finally gave up waiting for Digikam 0.10 to appear... i found these extremely simple instructions which worked perfectly for me... and i'm much happier now.

I am glad to see that all my digikam 3 database has not been lost and is now properly translated in the new format.
This new release is full of promises.
Just a silly question : how to report bugs found in this beta release ?